In the nick of time: males of the parasitoid wasp Pimpla disparis respond to semiochemicals from emerging mates.

Males of the parasitoid wasp Pimpla disparis Viereck (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) aggregate on parasitized gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar, host pupae when the emergence of a prospective mate is imminent or under way. We tested the hypotheses that the developing parasitoid ("DePa") inside the host pupal case produces a pheromone that attracts and arrests mate-seeking males, and that the pheromone is most effective during the emergence of the parasitoid from the host. Results obtained in two-choice laboratory experiments, with 4-7-d-old virgin males, indicate that (1) DePa-derived semiochemicals arrest males, (2) the opening of a host pupal case strongly arrests males, and (3) the arrestment cue emanates from oral fluid secreted by both female and male parasitoids while they chew their way out of a host pupal case. This phenomenon implies that emerging females, which are haplodiploid and can reproduce without mating, do not engage in active pheromone signaling to attract males, and that mate-seeking males co-opt chemicals involved in eclosion as a mate-finding cue, taking a 50% chance that the prospective mate is a female.